TBS Raising Marketing Efforts

NEW YORK -- Turner Broadcasting Systems Inc. is stepping up marketing and promotional efforts for all of its networks and will more aggressively cross-promote shows across the various networks, chairman and CEO Jamie Kellner said Tuesday.

Kellner cited the promotion of "The Oblongs," a new show on the WB Network, as an example of how the company's vast media power can drive the audience. "Our networks should be promoting everything. ... Whatever the big event is that week, all the networks should be promoting that, not just one network," said Kellner, who was named to his current post last month. "When was the last time you saw a promotion for CNN except on CNN? They haven't aggressively marketed themselves; they haven't had to."

Kellner's comments came at the Big Picture media investment conference, organized by Salomon Smith Barney and trade publisher Cahners Television Group, where he appeared on a panel titled "Programming the Media -- The Old and New." Others on the panel were MTV Networks chairman and CEO Tom Freston, Oxygen Media chairman and CEO Geraldine Laybourne and A&E Television Networks chairman and CEO Nick Davatzes.

NEW YORK -- Turner Broadcasting Systems Inc. is stepping up marketing and promotional efforts for all of its networks and will more aggressively cross-promote shows across the various networks, chairman and CEO Jamie Kellner said Tuesday.

Kellner cited the promotion of "The Oblongs," a new show on the WB Network, as an example of how the company's vast media power can drive the audience. "Our networks should be promoting everything. ... Whatever the big event is that week, all the networks should be promoting that, not just one network," said Kellner, who was named to his current post last month. "When was the last time you saw a promotion for CNN except on CNN? They haven't aggressively marketed themselves; they haven't had to."

Kellner's comments came at the Big Picture media investment conference, organized by Salomon Smith Barney and trade publisher Cahners Television Group, where he appeared on a panel titled "Programming the Media -- The Old and New." Others on the panel were MTV Networks chairman and CEO Tom Freston, Oxygen Media chairman and CEO Geraldine Laybourne and A&E Television Networks chairman and CEO Nick Davatzes.